How Luka Doncic destroyed the Phoenix Suns / News - Basketnews.com

The 4th seeded Dallas Mavericks delivered a surprising victory by 33 points in Game 7 over the Phoenix Suns. They won the series 4-3 against the regular-season leaders, who went to a league-best 64-18 record this campaign.

Luka Doncic

MIN:36.97PTS:33.63 (58.18%)REB:8.69As:8.75ST:1.69BL:0.56TO:3.75GM:32ProfileNBA2022/2023

With this Game 7 victory, Mavs tied the 5th biggest win in an entire NBA history, and now Dallas is set to face the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference final.

How did Mavericks end up beating last year's grand finalists?

In the NBA playoffs, where everything is all about the matchup hunting, Luka Doncic has been involved in most of them. The offensive genius was targeted more than 20 times per game in PnRs for his defensive weaknesses while exposing Phoenix's stars to the same problem on the other side of the court.

BasketNews' Augustas Suliauskas analyzed the evolution of Luka in this series and the chess match between Monty Williams and Jason Kidd.

Games 1 and 2

Phoenix decided to really put Luka's ability to defend on a test from the start of the series. Dallas didn't want to switch, so Doncic was late to recover. While Jae Crowder and Chris Paul were running through their sets, Crowder got opportunities to attack Luka's closeout or punish him in Pick and Pop.

Devin Booker joined the Suns' offensive party, playing 1-4 screen with Dallas sticking to their plan but trying to rotate harder on the Pop. Phoenix didn't fall for the bite, and Dallas knew it was time to change something up.

CP3 hunted Luka a couple of times more, and Jason Kidd had seen enough by now and decided to try and hide Luka, putting him low to start the possession and instructing Kleber to follow anyone who wanted to set a pick for Paul.

Too bad it didn't really matter at that point, while Point God was entertaining the crowd with all kinds of dribble combos to get to his spots and incredible shot fakes to get completely wide open.

Luka Doncic

Team:Dallas MavericksPosition:SGAge:23Height:201 cmWeight:104 kgBirth place:Ljubljana, SloveniaProfileNewsStatistics

In Game 2, Paul scored or assisted on the first 19 points in the 4th quarter and continued the onslaught later against Doncic, with Dallas not being able to hide him in early screens, thus forcing switches.

Games 3 and 4

The Mavericks came back to Dallas with clear objectives in mind: adjustments hiding Luka, a higher defensive aggressiveness, and the need to include others offensively more. To be honest, the first part of the plan didn't work that well at all.

Whenever Phoenix hunted Doncic in pick&rolls, the Mavs blitzed the ball handler, forcing Paul and Booker to get rid of the ball and then rotate to the next man. The Suns' foundation is based on finding an open man, and after the initial double team, it wasn't a big problem.

The only good thing about this strategy is that it takes away the ball from your opponent's best player's hands, which is a good thing but obviously only if you aren't allowing layups or dunks and rather forcing the other team at least to make long shots from three.

So if the plan to hide Luka didn't work, how in the world did the Mavs win Games 3 and 4?

The answer lies somewhere in between two points of emphasis. Dallas was much more intense on defense overall, led by Bullock shadowing CP3 full court and Finney-Smith doing a great job all night following Booker off screens. Blitzing forced the Suns into a lot of uncomfortable situations, especially when they couldn't get quick advantages on first kick-out passes.

It took the ball away from Paul and Booker, and the other Suns couldn't step up. There was an outlier in both of those Phoenix's losses in Dallas too. In Game 3, Chris Paul had 7 turnovers in the first 14 minutes of game time, losing the ball in unexpected situations while being pressured by Reggie Bullock.

He was 1 turnover shy of matching his career playoff-high as well as equaling all turnovers Dallas made in all game.

In Game 4, Paul fouled out in just 23 minutes of playing time, picking up extremely harsh calls against him or an unlucky in-air collision with Doncic right before the halftime buzzer.

His subpar performances were also influenced by the fact that Dallas was looking to attack him on offense as much as possible, whether that meant involving him in Post Ups or pick&roll defense.

Luka is taller and stronger, while Brunson has enough strength against Paul and other Phoenix's guards, so it was an effective way not only to score but also to create great opportunities for others when the defense collapsed.

Game 5

Having lost both games in Dallas, the Suns had to respond in Game 5 in the Valley, and they did it in style. Just like in Game 2, the crucial run came in the 2nd half, exposing Doncic on defense.

They played Zipper Top pick&rolls with red-hot Booker, used the transition screens, and 1-4 Pick and Pops.

Down 11, the Mavericks turned to target Paul again but failed to do so. Dallas didn't score for 5 minutes straight, letting this match go away as they missed many open shots from deep after drilling one after the other in Games 3 & 4.

The icing on the cake was another try to hide Doncic by playing zone, which resulted in Luka not defending anyone and Suns breaking it with one pass.

Phoenix won by a lot and the game didn't lack trash talking as well, with Luka and Booker adding some extra spice to this series.

Game 6

Facing elimination at home, Luka delivered. And this time, not only on offense. Obviously, he still wasn't perfect - in many situations, he was involved in, often he had to help and then try to recover on long closeouts, making it almost impossible. But he finally gave Dallas what Jason Kidd was asking since Game 3.

In other words, participating meant keeping his man in front for at least 1 or 2 seconds, making it easier for everyone else to help.

In offense, there are few others like Doncic. So to break the equation, this defensive performance was enough since his teammates were working extra hours to contain the Suns' stars.

After starting the game slowly, Luka got it going targeting none other but CP3. It's been a tough matchup for the Point God since he is much smaller and skinnier. We saw Luka punishing Suns with his signature stepback moves and running early Spain pick&rolls.

The Suns also had too many breakdowns defensively in Game 6. For example, Luka found his teammates open twice on the identical baseline out-of-bounds play where the Suns simply committed miscommunication errors.

Game 7

In order to win a vital Game 7, Luka Doncic needed to repeat what he showed us in Game 6. And Slovenian wunderkind made it with a bang.

Doncic started to destroy the Suns from the first seconds of the game. Stepback moves and fadeaway jumpers were an incomprehensible riddle for the Arizona club.

Deandre Ayton could do nothing against Luka in switches, while Mikal Bridges was powerless in Isolation. At halftime, Doncic had 27 points – just like the whole Suns team.

The Slovenian superstar shot 9/12 from the field, including 4/7 3-pointers, adding 9 rebounds and 3 assists to his performance.

Meanwhile, Dallas limited the Suns to poor shooting percentages, as Phoenix shot 10/41 from the field, involving 3/14 3-pointers. The Suns' trio of Booker (0 of 7), Ayton (1 of 4), and Paul (0 of 4) were 1 of 15 for six points in the half.

The home fans booed the Suns off the court at halftime when the score was 57-27. A 30-point lead at halftime is the biggest lead in Game 7s history.

Doncic continued his domination in the third quarter, turning NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith's words into nonsense (2018): "I don't give a damn about this kid from Europe [Luka Doncic] if you're the Phoenix Suns you have to take Deandre Ayton."

Full breakdown:

Subscribe to BN+ and get access to exclusive content.